Friends of the Chapel Newsletter 2Nd 08.Indd
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Friends Newsletter First Quarter 2008 With Both Hands by Sam Wells, Dean of Duke Chapel President: Patricia Philipps Excerpts from a Sermon preached in use only requires one hand: we can use a Vice President: Mary Best, WC ‘56 Duke University Chapel at Baccalaureate, number of things at the same time. But Secretary: Karen Rhodes, T ‘92 May 2008 to enjoy something, or someone, we really need both hands, because it takes all our We are a culture committed to multi- Immediate Past President: concentration. Education you use gets into tasking. It sometimes seems every aspect of Janet Gwyer, PhD your head. Education you enjoy gets into life is shaped to ensure it can be performed your heart and soul. Advisory Board: with one hand. We drive vehicles with Mel Baars, T ‘05, D ‘08 automatic transmission so we always have The distinction between use and enjoy Jean E. Carr WC ‘61 one hand free to eat French fries or speak applies to God too. God doesn’t use us. on a cell phone. God enjoys us. The whole life of God is G. Paul Carr shaped to be in relationship with us, to But from time to time in a student existence Andrew Crewson, T ‘09 enjoy us. God always approaches us with something comes along that can’t be ad- Gina Harrison both hands – because we mean everything dressed with just one hand. I wonder what Amanda Lee, T‘08 to God. There’s nothing more important in Wthings make you interrupt the one-hand cul- God’s life than us – God’s joy is us. The great Katie Owen, T ‘06 ture. What are the things you take with both mystery, of course, is whether we will enjoy Anthony Seese, P ‘91 hands? Maybe a ticket to the Duke-UNC God in return, and shape our life in order basketball game. Maybe a top job offer or a Ella Jean Shore, D ‘56 to receive God with two hands, or simply place at your number one graduate school. try to use God as just one more consumer Emeritus member: As you look back at your time at Duke, I good. One Reformation description of the William E. King, PhD, T ‘61, G ‘63, G ‘70 wonder which have been the moments that Christian faith says that we were made to needed two hands. enjoy God forever. That’s a project that INSIDE 1600 years ago St. Augustine of Hippo needs both hands. distinguished between two kinds of things. Britten Masterpiece Stirs Crowd 2 That brings me to the question I want to ask One kind of thing we enjoy. These are the each one of you on this, your last weekend at Vespers Ensemble Goes on Tour 3 things that are worth having for their own Duke. Have your four years here taught you sake. They aren’t a means to an end: they’re Ched Myers Comes to Durham 4 how to enjoy and what to enjoy? Or have a joy in themselves. They’re things that they simply taught you how and what to use PathWays Welcomes Mark Storslee 4 never run out. You don’t have to make an in a more sophisticated way? If your Duke argument for why they matter: they speak PathWays Summer Interns 5 education has really mattered, it’s because for themselves. The other kind of thing we Manna Mission Team 6 you’ve allowed it to really change you, at the use. Things we use aren’t good for them- core of your being. You can look back on Faith Council Jerusalem Trip 7 selves – they’re a means to some further moments, people, books, classes, professors, end. They do run out. They serve only a Chapel Housekeeper in Film 7 places, and say, “Those were the times when limited purpose. Carrying the Mace 8 I really learned to enjoy”. I want to suggest to you that what we grasp Then, my friends, you’ll know you’ve had an Remembering Tony 10 or take or juggle in one hand is what we education. Now, it’s time to commence the use, and what we yearn for and treasure Duke Lutheran Mission Trip 11 rest of your life. And my prayer and com- and shape our whole posture to receive mission to you is just one word. Enjoy. The Chapel’s Profound Inf luence 12 and cherish is what we enjoy. What we Directorship Funding Reaches Goal 13 FRIENDS OF DUKE CHAPEL SECOND QUARTER 2008 2 BRITTEN MASTERPIECE STIRS LARGE CROW D AT DUKE CHAPEL By Ken Hoover, reprinted courtesy of The Classical Voice of North Carolina A fully packed Duke Chapel saw and heard trumpets of the Day of Judgment, we are a monumental performance of Benjamin The choirs, the orchestra, thrust into a turmoil that is deeply trou- Britten’s War Requiem, Op. 66. Premiered the soloists, the conductor bling. To me, some of the “trumpet” calls in 1962 for the consecration of the restored – all put all they had into sound heroic and excited, and that is the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, which most unsettling thing. Will men and na- had been destroyed in the Blitz of WWII, this performance. tions never learn to tame this savage? Brit- Britten himself conducted with a Russian It was awesome from ten seems to say “no” in the Offertorium, soprano, an English tenor, and a German in one of the most chilling moments in Abaritone. The score calls for full orches- every perspective. all the music I know. Owen retells the tra, chamber ensemble, organ, large choir, It was unforgettable. epic tale of Abraham’s test of obedience children’s choir, and the three soloists. The in these words, which the tenor and the participants on this occasion were the Cho- baritone sing together: ral Society of Durham, the Duke University Chapel Choir, When lo! an angel called him out of heaven. the Duke University Chorale, the Durham Children’s Choir (Britten with pure musical magic makes the angel appear.) (Scott Hill, director), organist David Arcus, an orchestra and a chamber orchestra, soprano Ester Hardenbergh, tenor Wil- Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, liam Hite, and baritone Christòpheren Nomura. All seemed Neither do anything to him. Behold, intensely engaged in the immediate relevance of this remark- A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns; able work of art, in no small measure due to the leadership and inspiration of conductor Rodney Wynkoop. He and many of Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. the participants were reprising their 1993 performance of this But the old man would not so, but slew his son,- same work. And half the seed of Europe, one by one. Whatever happens in the next fi fteen years or the next four It is an awful moment, hard to get past. hundred years, the War Requiem will remain a monument And following that, the glorious but painful “Sanctus” ends to the 20th century and the pity, the awful senseless pity, of with Owen’s words: “Mine ancient scars shall not be glorifi ed, war. With the juxtaposition of the poetry of a soldier (Wilfred nor my titanic tears, the sea, be dried.” Owen) and the Latin text of the Mass for the Dead, Britten has captured, in awesome artistic genius, the soul of his cen- The “Agnus Dei” (“Lamb of God”) is a gentle prayer, tinged tury. From the opening ominous plea for eternal rest to the with sorrow; the tenor reminds us, “But they who love the FRIENDS OF DUKE CHAPEL SECOND QUARTER 2008 3 greater love lay down their life; they do not hate.” Still, the ominous and troubling tritone prevails, with no real resolu- tion. So the work of worship continues with the “Libera me,” that great prayer for deliverance which comes to a close shat- Vespers Ensemble teringly, with one soldier saying to the other, “I am the enemy you killed, my friend. ...Let us sleep now ....” And then the children surround the dead soldiers with the gentle prayers of Goes on Tour angels, joined by the chorus and soprano and orchestras swell- ing to white light before quieting down again. The piece ends with that exquisite chorale, repeated for the third time, resolv- ing with a mystical cadence to a pure F major triad which rests This winter, the Duke Vespers Ensemble the soul with condolence and hope. will head across the seas on a tour of Ger- The choirs, the orchestra, the soloists, the conductor – all put many and the Czech Republic. all they had into this performance. It was awesome from every “We’ll be singing mostly Christmas and perspective. It was unforgettable. It made it diffi cult to reen- ter the ordinary world of political hubris and human brutal- Epiphany music from the renaissance as ity – so much brutality. But it left that glimmer of light and well as a few Czech, German, and Ameri- that fl icker of hope that enable us to live on. So on this day can Christmas Carols,” said Allan Fried- of Passover, after the Seder, we lift our glasses with the toast man, the Vespers Ensemble conductor. “L’haim!” To Life!!! The 11-day tour will leave North Caro- The Classical Voice of North Carolina is an online performing lina in late December, and return in early arts journal based in central North Carolina. You can visit their January 2009. Highlights will include a website at www.cvnc.org. stop in Dresden with a performance in the Dreikoenigskirche and sightseeing in Prague with concerts in Nikolai Church and participation in worship at Church of the Sacred Heart.